Oh, brother.

From today’s NY Times:

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the West’s publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons was an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over the victory of the militant Hamas group in the Palestinian elections last month. ”The West condemns any denial of the Jewish holocaust, but it permits the insult of Islamic sanctities,” Khamenei said.

Okay, I’ve been trying to be open-minded; I can see why the Palestinians feel oppressed and displaced and blah, blah, blah, but this kind of behavior is absolutely ridiculous. What is this, a collective, global junior high? These religious extremists are delusional and irrational. The US is not without fault by any means, and perhaps the Danes and Norwegians could have shown a little more sensitivity in printing those cartoons, but honestly, the middle east’s over-hyped reaction is just further proof for me that religion does much more harm than good and that most of the leaders over there are a bunch of whackos.

I’m so on the Scandinavians side on this one. The ayatollah’s reaction is simply childish.